Swan stars, Pies thump GWS by 120 points
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Collingwood coasted to a 120-point win over Greater Western Sydney on Saturday, with Travis Cloke finding form and gun midfielder Dane Swan putting on a clinic of free-flowing and hard-running AFL football at the Showground.
Swan and Scott Pendlebury roamed free in paddocks of space, with Cloke one of the main beneficiaries as he found his radar and booted six goals to spearhead a 26.18 (174) to 7.12 (54) victory.
Cloke, playing his first match since the club decided to delay protracted contract negotiations until the end of the season, finished with an accurate haul of 6.0 – his best return for the season.
With the exception of the fledging moments of the match, Collingwood’s dominance was rarely called into question.
They swept the ball from one end of the field to the other with ease – often with Swan either starting or finishing with the ball.
Last year’s Brownlow medallist, fresh from tallying 49 disposals in last week’s loss to Hawthorn, finished with 38 disposals, five goals and five clearances.
Considering GWS had dropped their past four games by an average margin of 117.5 points prior to Saturday’s fixture, a 69-point margin at three-quarter time looked relatively respectable.
Swan was having none of it.
He kicked three final-quarter goals in the space of five minutes to boost the Magpies’ lead into the sort of percentage-boosting range many were expecting.
GWS’s near impossible task was made more difficult before the game even started, with veteran Chad Cornes a late scratching due to a virus.
The Giants started with promise and the first two goals of the game through Devon Smith, but it was always a question of when, not if, the Magpies would seize control of the game.
Pendlebury, who recovered from a knee to the back from Jeremy Cameron in a second-quarter marking contest, finished with 33 possessions and eight clearances.
Dayne Beams, Heath Shaw and Cloke were also heavily influential in the drubbing.
For GWS, Cameron kicked two goals and continued to look the goods while clutching seven marks, ruck/forward Jonathan Giles was a physical presence all day and on-ballers Adam Treloar and Toby Greene toiled manfully.
© AAP 2013The Crowd Says (15) | Page 1 of Comments
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July 29th 2012 @ 9:39am
Dave said | July 29th 2012 @ 9:39am | Report comment
I am getting increasingly angry watching the expansion teams play in front of poor crowds. Tasmania against anyone would pack out Aurora Stadium or Blundstone Arena regardless of how the team was faring. We are passionate about the game here in Tassie and deserve a team.
July 29th 2012 @ 11:03am
Adam said | July 29th 2012 @ 11:03am | Report comment
I live in Melbourne and I could not agree more tassie would pack out a stadium. Is it not clear yet that nsw are a state of downhill skiers ?. If they are not winning they won’t go to games the same applies to the Sydney Swans . Look at their crowds before they started winning???
July 29th 2012 @ 11:36am
DamoS said | July 29th 2012 @ 11:36am | Report comment
I tend to agree. It was all about trying to break into Western Sydney and WS don’t seem to care, only 8K against Collingwood is disgraceful.
July 29th 2012 @ 1:31pm
Brewski said | July 29th 2012 @ 1:31pm | Report comment
I actually disagree, the new Tasmanian team, if there was one, would have been set up the same way, with a very young, high draft pick, inexperiened team, and would be getting flogged by the same amount of margins, Tasmanians unless i am mistaken, would not turn up to see their team flogged like this either.
GWS is a much better place than Tassie in terms of future growth, that is not to say that Tassie does not deserve a team, but that is the way it is ATM.
I do think that these floggings cheapen the comp, but judgement on the actual future sucess of these expansion teams is way way to soon.
July 29th 2012 @ 5:45pm
clipper said | July 29th 2012 @ 5:45pm | Report comment
Brewski, the difference is Tas is an Aussie Rules state, the Western Suburbs is league heartland who have been informed that there is a ‘war’. I doubt they will get more than 10-15k for the next few years. It’s easy to get a good crowd for a one off event (like the first game), but it’s hard to convert that to crowd numbers week in week out – they will have to console themselves that the Easts and Cronulla games could only get 8k as well.
I agree that it may cheapen the GWS brand if the floggings keep going on, but the AFL, I presume, would have done mounds of research on the matter, so we will have to wait for a few years to see what happens.
July 29th 2012 @ 5:21pm
Jars said | July 29th 2012 @ 5:21pm | Report comment
I’m sick of the incessant whining about it everywhere, can’t you people accept reality? Tasmania is too small.
July 29th 2012 @ 6:24pm
yewonk said | July 29th 2012 @ 6:24pm | Report comment
yes but some one has to have the smallest crowds, an all tasmanian team would have been far more parochial than gws its reasonable based on tas current attendances that tas would have had twenty thousand from its first year on but how long will it take gws? no matter how you look at it gws always had a much higher risk on return. in saying that still to many clubs in melb
July 30th 2012 @ 12:44am
Knoxy said | July 30th 2012 @ 12:44am | Report comment
The West Sydney region has a population of around 2 million people most of whom don’t follow an AFL team. Tasmania on the other hand only has a population of around half a million people the majority of which already follow football. It’s not rocket science. West Sydney is an untapped market with huge potential where as Tasmania is already AFL heartland. There’s not much potential for growth down there. The AFL can afford to wait with Tasmania where as they had to make a move into West Sydney as soon as possible. I believe Tasmania will eventually get a team but it won’t be for some time.
July 29th 2012 @ 12:39pm
Cugel said | July 29th 2012 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
First team to lose by 10 goals or more six times in a row.
July 30th 2012 @ 1:00pm
Hamish said | July 30th 2012 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
The NRL dont share some AFL peoples pessimism because they keep scheduling WS RL teams playing at home on GWS home weekends (and even next door at the same time)…
July 30th 2012 @ 4:18pm
Matt F said | July 30th 2012 @ 4:18pm | Report comment
The NRL may decide what weekend the teams play but the TV networks decide what time and day the game’s are played. The scheduling of the Bulldogs game at the same time as the Giants game had nothing to do with the NRL.
July 30th 2012 @ 7:33pm
yewonk said | July 30th 2012 @ 7:33pm | Report comment
its true matt f it had more to do with a certain tv exceutive who also negotiates his clubs sPonsourshiP deals with the ability to Promise them maxium tv coverage no matter how badly they Play. the bulldogs/ cowboys game should have been on friday night and the giants Probably would have had more at their game roosters on had eight thousand so did cronulla.
July 30th 2012 @ 3:20pm
TW said | July 30th 2012 @ 3:20pm | Report comment
The anti AFL naysayers out in force again -Quite correctly the GWS club itself is still focused on the main picture – Getting some wins on the board and developing the grassroots.
This article tells how the club hopes to knock off the hapless Port Power club this weekend at home at Skoda.
http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/208/default.aspx?newsid=143022
The club itself hosted today 200 kids for a fun day of footy and games – This is called looking after the kids with an eye on the future at which the AFL is very good at.
The AFL and GWS are in for the long haul – We know the other codes and their supporters have no idea about this concept so watch and learn.
July 30th 2012 @ 4:07pm
Gezza said | July 30th 2012 @ 4:07pm | Report comment
Hmmm!
Only one comment about the game!
And that was an obscure stat.
No wonder only 8000 turned up!
July 31st 2012 @ 10:46am
Buffy said | July 31st 2012 @ 10:46am | Report comment
Are we looking at a crowd sub 3000 for the Port game?